Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A request for help

I am a major dreamer. Quite literally. I dream in technicolor and scene by scene unfolds everytime I sleep. I have had several profound dreams as well, some of which have come as a message during tough times.What I am asking help for right now, is about one such dream. This is probably my last resort to find out.I was probably 12 then, not the greatest points in time in our lives and I remember dreaming of a Goddess who seemed reclined like Lord Ranganatha in a mandap where there are hundreds of women and men perhaps, I am not too sure, singing Bhajans. I walk up to the Goddess. She is all alive, a very human form. I go to her and the Goddess, clad in yellow, lifts herself up and tells me that she has been waiting to see me for a long time and asks when I am going to come and see her. And I ask where should I look for you? She says "Madhura pakkathula Kali". "Madhura" was said very coloquially, not pronounced to the last syllable. And then she transforms into an idol. One leg folded up.I remember telling my grandad first, asking him whether he knows of a reclining Goddess. He asked me to go to Siruvachur, wherein the Goddess Madura Kali resides. I went there and to countless other temples in search of her. We have perhaps looked and asked around Madurai. Went looking for her in our very own Paramakudi. But somehow I do not think I have found her yet. Perhaps this is Her way of leading me on a chase, by which I end up going to temple after temple. I love it though. I have been interested in it ever since mom's project with Govt of India happened, on Temple Traditions and Culture; She is a senior fellow. Her documentaries and other work rest at home, which I intend to bring out soon.So as a last resort, I am asking you if by any chance some temple comes to your mind after reading this, do let me know. I will make it a point to visit there. And if it is near Mathura, UP do let me know. I could perhaps look there as well.

39 comments:

Hi Chinmayi,Hope u r doing good. I m not aware of any temple in UP. The only temple that flashes in my mind is Tanjore Brahadeeshwarar temple. What a splendid architecture!!! You might be going there often, but I'm unable to think of anyother temple in mind in terms of architecture. The other one is Prathiyankara temple in Shollinganallur where I get plenty of peace in mind & soul!!!

Good luck with your search. Can't help you trace which one it really is but maybe its just that by setting you on a wild-goose chase, She set you on a path to all the temples possible. I'd guess that to be most fulfilling.

Also, perhaps you could arrange for a screening of your moms documentaries. I'm sure thee are many organisations that would be glad to arrange for such. Alliance, Max mueller bhavan etc would be glad i'm sure to showcase our temples n such.

Do u beleive that dreams r related to the real life... Coz i dreamt quite wierd most of the times, but never bothered to research about it.. Jus share your knowledge regarding this please.. It will be really interesting.

I hope I am not misleading you anywhere, but this is all the info I know of SEPARATE TEMPLES FOR MOTHER KALI :

1)Ujjain(it is also one of the 12 Jyothir ling temples) )

2)Dwaraka Mutt established by the Adhi Shankara.

3)Dhakshineshwar in Kolkata.

4)Dhakshina Kali temple in Jakir Amma Palayam near Salem junction.

5)Kolavizhi Amman temple in Mylapore ,Chennai

6)Bhargat hill in Gujrath. Worshipped by the great warrior Rana Prathap.

7)Sri Vekkali Amman Temple in Worriyur (Trichy)

8)Mathura kali in Siruvachur near Trichi. The temple opens on Mondays and Fridays only. She was the favourite deity for the Maratta king Sarfoji.(u visited this place)

9)Makalikudi near Trichy which was supposed to be worshipped by the the great king Vikramatitya.

10) A private temple in Senthamangalam and Mavoor near near Tiruvarur(S.India)

11)Kali temple in Rameswaram.The first pooja will be offered here during the two temple festivals.

I am sure you would find pleasure visiting these temples, and may b yr dream will get fulfilled. And please pray for the well-being of all souls in this earth..!!!May you live long Chinmayi..!!! GOD Bless...

PS: Arulmigu Mathurakali Amman and Vedappar Swamy Temple are situated on the Thirukovilur-Thiruvannamalai Road at Shanthi Nagar in Thiruvannamalai District of Tamil Nadu. Arulmigu Mathurakali Amman Temple is dedicated to Mathurakali Amman, a unique form of goddess Kali.

I have personally visited this temple, and this Goddess Kali strikes my mind reading yr blog. May b this is a gud place to start with.

N I am abi, d person who's been talking to you for d past 2 weeks...Have a gud 1..Take care.GB

there is a temple where the Kaali is in a lying down stature..Its called Angaala Parameshwari Temple and its in Salem.. She is reverred as a powerful Goddess..Iam not sure whether it wud exactly b the same u r envisioning.. but still it s so far the only yemple where i ve seen Amman in the lying down stature..Its near the Raja Ganapathy temple at the city center of Salem..Prayin that u find tat temple f ur dream..

I can think of Vakra Kaali Amman temple in Thiruvakkarai which is a Thevara Padal Petra sthalam. Since its been more than 10 years, I dont remember much about the Amman deity there.

Templenet.com is a very useful site that has a comprehensive list of temples in India (like I wrote before as a comment on this blog). You may want to try mailing the site owner Kanniks who is a ardent musician himself.

i think only a enlightened master can guide you in the right direction. I wish you find your spiritual Guru soon and get all the answers from Him.There are lots of Masters out there, i guess you just have to follow the signs and i´m sure it will happen at the right time.

Hi Chinmayi,Surprising you mentioned Goddess Madurakali Amman in siruvachur. That is the God I pray to and she has helped me a lot in my life.

Anyway's my wife say's it is Masani Amman in Pollachi. Below is my wife Krithika's info on it.They grind chilli and put it on god, then after their wishes are fullfilled, they have to give oil to bring her anger down.If not she will revert the anger back on who gave the chilliThis Goddess is in inclined position.

I'm not sure whether this info will help.I have been to this temple.I have been to this temple.Vakrakaliamman Temple is situated at Thiruvakkarai village, Vanoor Taluk, Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu state in India

Women Rules: I have been thereSriram: Maybe.. shall tryVignesh; Dont know if I want to write about dreams and what they mean ... at least not right nowAbi: Have been to 3, 8. I shall make it apoint to visit the othersShiva: valuable info. shall check it outMadhav: have been there several timesAnonymous: Nice thought.. but would still like to search for that templePooja: Thanks shall visitDr: I do not know if this is the same as the one mentioned above by Shiva. if it iz not I shall make it a point to visitAnonymous: Shall look up. thanlsAmbarish: Nice idea but do they also have descriptions of how the Goddess inside is like?Anonymous: will doAnonymous: There is a dearth of Englitened Gurus now.. and probably through Nadayoga I shall try to achieve enlightenment myself.. Krithika: Have relatives in pollachi.. have been there several times.. and chilli is not ground and put on the Goddess but on some sort of a stone in front of her. I don't believe in doing that thoughPriya: have been there several times :)

can u add a little more info on how the deity looked any special features u remember, any other detail in the dream which could help. sorry if i sound like investigating a crime scene . i told my mom abt this.my mom is a temple maniac she has been hunting down temples for past 50 years .she has even got many literatures. so might be of great help thats why i am asking!!!....

If you didnt find any - may be you want to rethink on what other meaning would madhurapakkathula kali would mean !

i recall madhurapakkam is a place somewhere near mannadipettai. you had the dream - so try remembering if Madurai was said colloquially or was it madhurapakkam .. and i do not know of any temples .. just a thought if you may have to rethink what you inferred earlier !

I dont know whether you have gone to Ujjain where a powerful Mahakaleswar temple is there-it is unique in several ways-I shall give you more details if you are interested in really going there-normally people refer to the harsiddhi temple where kaalidoss was blessed by Kaali but this one is a different temple in the same locality-there are at least a handful of temples worth a visit including Mangalnath where you can be assured of peace and tranquility..(Places may look a bit dirty, nothing to beat Varanasai on the count of dirt of course)

Hi, Masani Amman in Pollachchi is a famous for the lying posture. I did a Google image search and she seems to be wearing yellow saree. I heard that there is one Anagala Parameswari temple at Putlur - Between Chennai and Thiruvallur in Avadi road. Here too She is lying. Ask someone to check these places.May She reveal you sooner! Do let us know if you get to know.

Good to see your responses individually for the comments in the last few of your post.

Don't know how much I could help,but would like to mention few temples.

Last week there was a big festival in Trivandrum called as pongala festival exclusively for and by women in kerala. Its has created Guiness record for the largest gathering of women in the world to celebrate a festival. Infact I have seen KS Chitra, Parvathy Omankuttan just to name a few who were shown(in TV) with Pongal pots..Check out with your friends from Kerala abt this temple. and also here http://www.attukal.org/

There is another temple in kerala-http://www.chottanikkarabhagavathy.org/home.html

Check out Bannari Amman temple details as well.

Whatever the case, Wish and pray you have blessings of God always to excel in your career and life.

There is a temple in Thottiam (which is in on the way between Tiruchirapalli and Namakkal) named MaduraiKaliamman Temple.

King Esanakarayar ruled this area. Chinnan, a servant who worked in his stable, wants to go to Kali Festival at Madurai. He got permission from the King and he went to Madurai with his “Parai”, a musical drum and stayed at his brother-in-laws houses. Next day he went to Kali temple and began to play “Parai” rhythamically. Goddess Kali admired by the music of chinnan and followed him back to Thottiam and Goddess Kali seated under the “ Vanni” tree. Latter a temple was constructed by Pujankrayar at this place. The name of the Goddess is MaduraiKaliamman and the Thalavirusham is “Vanni” tree.

So only in Tamil, there is a famous proverb in villages called "Ondi vandha pidarai , Oor Pidarayai Viratutham"

Hi Chinmayi, Hope you find the temple and/or the true meaning of the dream. It's amazing that you continue to remember the dream with that clarity. Unfortunately, my knowledge of temples is that of a 10 yr old, although I desire to know more. I am very interested in what you mentioned about your mother's work. Do let us know when it is out for the public.~Srikanth

Hi chinmaye, I visit this kalai every year near manglore, its called ' kattil' kali.. this famous temple is inbetween udupi and mangalore, very close to amngalore airport takes only 20 mins from there.The kallai there is very powerful, if u intend to visit mookamika temple at kollur, its on the way only. every evey i visit mookambika temple in january 1 st week, such a wonderful temple and sowbernika river banks will be very beautiful...

Hi Chinmayi,Madura kali amman is my kuladheivam. I had been several times to the temple. It is in Thottiyam near Trichy. I can give you the contact number of the temple officer whom we contact for details. If interested please do mail me back.

You can visit Maasani amman temple in Pollachi.Here the Goddess lies down like as you have seen in your dreams.She is a very powerful Goddess.She is an avatar of Goddess Parvathi.Visit her and you can make your dream into reality.We can only keep her photos in a very clean environment so we should not keep her photos in house where family resides.I have visited her temple,and I wish to visit her again to get her blessings.Good luck Chinamyi !!!

My comment here might/not guide you in your search. But I wantedto share a small experience of mine as well.

A year ago, I had a dream, where I see myself in an old temple building and I go around in search of "Shirdi Baba" in that temple. However, I see Lord Shiva in reclining pose. I see from HIS chest upwards.. more looks like a statue, blue in color, a slight smile. All this I see from sidewards.. I mean, only the side view I guess, which I saw in my dream.

When I woke up, though felt a little strange.. I kept enquiring if there was any temple where Lord Shiva is seen in reclining pose. However, everyone said it was only Lord Vishnu seein in reclining pose and not of Lord Shiva. However Google searches helped me and I found, that there is a place called "SurutaPalli" where, there is this shrine, "PalliKondeeshwarar" some kilometers from Chennai on the TN-AP border, Chennai enroute Tirupathi. It said, this place is the only temple, where Lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of Sayana Sivan. I browsed through the images but nothing resembled my dream except one, which said, was the image on the "Gopuram", which I felt most resembled the vision I had in dream.

Inspite of the information, I did not see myself going there as I never thought I would.. and I wasnt sure as such.

This year, in March, while we were at our grandparent's house in Chennai, a trip to Tirupathi materialised. though, my first thought flew to this special temple.. I still wasn't sure.

When we started from Chennai by car, I was fully attentive striving hard to not miss one nameboard on the way, which reads "surutapalli". Inspite of my stark attentiveness, no, no such place came on the way. However I lost hope as we reached Tirupathi. While we were returning back, the next day, i.e., Thursday, my dad and cousin were so keen they drive back on the same route they took yesterday.

That meant, my place would never happen on the way.

So, no point of me keeping my eyes open all through the drive. So, i decided I was going to sleep..

A minute before falling asleep.. i just did this.. I addressed Shirdi Baba "Lord, if it is YOU who gave me that dream, let me visit that shrine".. else, I thought I shall take it that dreams seldom have meaning.

As we drove.. with my dad and bro very cautious to take the same road again, and me in a deep sleep.. Suddenly I woke up.. feew seconds later, my mom beisde me casually read the name on the nameboard "SURUTAPALLI".. She was reading that... I almost gasped.. I looked out of the window.. wondering too many things (how did i miss yesterday, what in case if the temple was inside the village, would my dad/bro ever take me serious if i tell them this dream and that i want to visit this temple in this remote place).. well, even before I had time for those thoughts, I saw a temple building, dint look old though, was painted in bright colors and as I was peering to see the name of the temple, even fore or at the same time, I guess, I saw one of the Gopurams of the temple, with Lord Shiva in reclining pose, just the side view, painted light blue in color, a smile on His lips.. WOW.. I was thrillled. I literally asked them to stop the car and I was just waiting to get out. My dad, just pulled the car to a halt on the left side and as he halted.. guess what.. In that remote place in those walls, I see a picture of Shirdi Baba.

We went isndie.. however the temple was closed as it was mid noon. But I saw the gopuram which blessed me in my dream.. was thrilled.. too excited.. happy, contented.

This reaffirmed my faith in the Supreme. That there is a Living God and would you call this a coincidence??

Especially, as my dad and bro realsied that they were on an entirely different route, when they were too too cautious to take the same route back to Chennai...

you may google for the names I used here to see the pictures.

In all.. I am sure you will one day for sure, visit that shrine and that you are blessed. :) If at all, I get to hear further, will try to update you, though I am not sure if I can keep track of your blogs often.

chinmayi, the only comment that has given the right information is by shyma - he is right - There is a madurakali amman temple in Thottiam (a place near Tiruchirapalli). One leg folder up - yes, it is so..I can give you more details if you are interested.